Hosker, G [Sword of Cartimandua 06] Druid's Gold (34 page)

On the battle field Morwenna was urging her warriors on and anticipating the victory as her Irish army closed upon the Prefect and the standards when she heard the buccina. For the first time she felt doubts creep into her mind.  She glanced over her shoulder and watched as the twelve hundred legionaries raced across the ground.  Even though her army still outnumbered the Romans surrounded by a tide of enemies and Brennus’ reinforcements, she knew that her army, cobbled together from warriors, Irish mercenaries and deserters would not stand especially not with Decius, still ensconced in Eboracum and Tadgh too weak from loss of blood to go on. She urged her men onwards. “On we have them and Eboracum is ours for the picking. Fight for your Queen!” Inside however she was already planning her escape.  She and her inner circle of druids and guards were mounted; the road south was clear and Decius might be able to join her from Eboracum bringing with him his extra men. She called over the young Irish warrior, Ardal. “Ride to Eboracum and find General Decius. Have him meet us on the road south of Eboracum.” The young boy was so smitten with the witch that he did not question her command but galloped off.  She turned to her druids.  “Tie Tadgh onto a horse and head south, I will join you.”

“But your majesty!”

Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared angrily, “Do not question your Queen!  Now go.” Finally she turned to her bodyguard, as Tadgh was, reluctantly, tied on to a horse and led swiftly away, she smiled and she knew they would do anything for her.  “Those who are mounted I would have you continue to protect me as I ride to raise another army.  For those afoot, join Ernan your king, for there glory lies.” Glancing over her shoulder she saw that the Romans were barely four hundred paces away.  “I will see you in the afterlife.” With that she kicked her horse on and rode away with her six remaining body guards in close company.

The last of her entourage, all forty of them turned as a body and hurled themselves at the First Cohort now less than two hundred paces away. The acting First Spear took in the reckless charge and shook his head sadly, what a fine waste of brave warriors. “Halt!” With remarkable precision the whole line halted. The Irish were less than forty yards away. “First two centuries, javelins… now.” The two hundred javelins plunged into the forty bodies and the Roman line carried forward over the bodies of the young men whose lives had just been discarded so carelessly.

The battle was not over but as the two cohorts plunged into unprotected backs it rapidly disintegrated as a contest.  The first to flee were the recently joined Brigantes who threw away their improvised weapons and ran.  The Irish and the deserters fought back to back and to the death. The prefect who had taken a sword thrust to the arm was in no mood for leniency and ordered the legion to finish them with javelins to minimise Roman losses.  Ernan roared his defiance and charged the First Cohort with the last of his oath brothers.  It took six javelins in each man to kill the warrior but eventually the only ones left were the Romans and the rest were dead and dying.

Cassius found the dying Mocius.  “Was it worth it Mocius?”

“I died with a sword in my hand but I am glad that survived I owe my...” with that he died and Cassius wondered what he had done to merit such thanks.

First Spear had also survived but only just, around him lay the dead bodies of many of Ernan’s warriors as well as the aquifer and five other legionaries. He would live but it would take a miracle for him to serve again.  For the moment the acting First Spear was the Ninth’s new senior officer.

Livius and Cassius found as many of their Explorates as they could.  When he found Rufius he embraced him. “Thank you for the arrows Rufius but how you and Ovidius managed to shoot three arrows so quickly is beyond me.”

Rufius shook his head sadly and pointed to the body covered by a red cloak. “Ovidius was killed in the first attack.  It is these two to whom you owe thanks. Marcus Gaius and Macro stood nervously behind Rufius.

“We know you told us to stay near to the prefect but when you rode to stem the flank attack we have to follow.  We are sorry sir.”

“No Marcus Gaius; you have no need to apologise for the Allfather directed your course and I am in your debt.  When we return to the farm we will talk with your parents of the future.”

“Sir, the prefect wishes to speak with you.”

Livius followed the legionary to the Prefect who was being fussed over by a capsarius. “Well at least I can look First Spear in the eye the next time that we discuss war, when he recovers of course.  You have done well decurion but I have another task, well two actually. I have received a report, unconfirmed that Eboracum has fallen to the enemy and I know that Morwenna has fled south.  I need you to confirm the first and follow the Queen.”

Livius looked over at his men.  “I only have five men who are fit to ride sir but I will go.  We will ride close to Eboracum first and ascertain the problem then I will follow Morwenna but I fear that she has got a good two hours start on us.  Even if we find her then we cannot follow for long, our horses would not last.”

“I know decurion.  I just need to know the direction she takes. You do not need to catch her.  I will send the Gallic cavalry after her. They will be at Eboracum tomorrow.”

“But what if Eboracum is taken?”

“I do not think there will be many of her troops left there even if they did take it.  We will follow as soon as we have cleared the field.  I just need to know from you if I need to go in armed or if I can walk, or rather crawl in.”

Smiling at the older man’s bluff humour Livius saluted and went back to Rufius, Metellus and Cassius. The other two were new Explorates he did not know yet.  He would soon have to learn their names and the replacements for the dead troopers they had lost in this campaign. “Mount up boys our war is not over.”

“Sir.”

“Yes Macro?”

“Can we come?”

Marcus Gaius burst in, “If you left us here we would be alone and Rufius promised mother he would take us back safely.”

Cassius and Rufius both hid smiles. “Oh mount up and the first thing I will ask your father is to give you both a good beating.”

Grinning they both said, “Yes sir.  Thank you sir.”

Metellus leaned over, his face still pale from the sword thrust.  2You will not be so eager after six months in the saddle.”

*

Marius and Drusus were exhausted.  It had taken far longer to round up their men than they had expected and they had run out of food the previous day. Marius had suggested that they go to the river to camp and catch fish.  As he had said, “We have little water and our mounts are all out. Let us call it a scouting expedition.”

Drusus could find no argument to that and he had assented. As they had fished by the river they found a peace that had been absent for so long. “I could do this all day you know Drusus.  Just watch the river drift by and catch supper.”

“It is pleasant.”

Suddenly their pleasant mood was shattered by Fabius who came racing along.  He spoke urgently and quietly.  “Sir, just around the bend of the river, there are deserters and a wagon. Looks like they are waiting for something.”

“Typical,” moaned Drusus.  “Just get comfortable and…”

“Stop moaning you old woman.  Leave is over, we are back in the war.”

Nuada and the men were becoming nervous. They had noticed bodies floating down the river.  Admittedly they were towns’ people but his men had begun to talk of failure.  Suppose Decius had died? What if something had happened to the Queen?  Perhaps they should run?

Nuada knew that if any of that had happened they were lost but he also knew that if they fled with the gold and Centurion was still alive then he would hunt and kill them. Nuada shuddered.  He feared Centurion and Tiny above all men. “We wait.  We are hidden.  We watch for ships none has gone either upstream or downstream so the General is still there.  We wait.”

To the Explorates it was child’s play to get close enough to observe the deserters and, leaving Fabius on watch, they withdrew to the road. “Well it is obvious isn’t it? You and Curtius find the decurion and I will wait and watch.”

“You take Marius and remember that fishing spot. We must be due some leave soon.”

*

Decius was becoming impatient, not with the sailors, for he could see they were working as hard as they could terrified as they were of Tiny who stood glowering over them.  Decius was annoyed with that which he could not change, the weather.  The wind as all could see was in the wrong direction and the narrow river meant that they had to tack back and forth. It had taken most of the morning for them to reach the juncture with the smaller river, the Fosse.

“Curse this wind.”

“Perhaps Morwenna knows you had deserted her and has summoned the Mother to aid her.”

Decius flashed a sharp angry look at Centurion.  The thought had cross his mind but you didn’t say it out loud in case the words were carried on the air and the witch heard them.  “She cannot know yet. Even if she is victorious it would take time to reach Eboracum and then search for me.”

“We should have destroyed the other boats, and then no-one could have followed us.”

Decius shrugged, “That is hindsight but it matters not.  Even if they do follow us they have to endure the same capricious wind as we.”

The mate shouted over, “Sir, er captain, er General!”

“What is it?”

“Ahead is the bend in the river.”

“And…”

“The wind will begin to serve us we will move quickly.”

“Excellent.” He slapped Centurion on the back.  “There I told you the witch did not know.”

‘Aye’, thought Centurion but you thought she had invoked the Mother.

*

The young Irishman caught up with Morwenna and her entourage just a mile south of Eboracum.  “Your majesty. Eboracum has been destroyed.”

Morwenna’s mind was filled with conflicting thoughts.  Her plan had half succeeded but it had not done her any good.  Perhaps if she had just invested Eboracum then her gamble might have paid of but then she remembered the ordered legionaries and the wild charges of the Brigante and Irish.  No the only way she could have held Eboracum was with a deserter army and Decius. “Where is the General then?  Is he following?”

The druids looked up at the Queen. She would normally have seen where he was but where Decius Lucullus Sallustius was concerned her second sight was blinded by lust. The messenger looked a little shamefaced. “I found one of his men who said he had seen the General, Centurion and Tiny take a ship and head downstream.”

The Queen kept her emotions under control but she now knew that the gold wagon, which had disappeared, was headed for a meeting with Decius. She actually became sad when she realised that he valued the gold more than her.  She cared nothing for the gold; it had been a means to an end but for her ex-lover it was everything. She shrugged off the memory and thought of him.  She would return to Manavia and her children.  There she and her priests would begin again.  Her revolt was not over.  It would be a long journey home for they would have to endure the winter in the mountains but the Romans would be too busy repairing forts and rounding up the deserters.

“We head south and thence to Manavia. Let us ride.” She urged her horse on and the band galloped down the road.

The Explorates heard the thunder of the hooves on the cobbled road and reacted swiftly, hiding in the woods off to the side. They saw the white horse of Morwenna sweep by and the bodyguards and priests surrounding her. When she had passed by they waited in case the rest of her army followed.

“Here is a dilemma. Do we follow or what?”

“It doesn’t alter what we do Drusus. We still have to tell Livius about the deserters and we can now tell him about the Queen.”

“Perhaps she was joining the deserters?”

“No I think that she would have been riding towards the river to join them.” Marius led the patrol back to the road and watched as the crowd that was the Queen headed south. “The road is without a turning for many miles. We are not far from Livius. We can still catch them.”

They headed up the road as fast as their weary horses would allow.  Livius and his Explorates were heading south and they met just a mile from the place they had seen the Queen. “Are we glad to see you Livius.  We have seen the Queen heading south on the road to Lindum.” Marius looked apologetically at his decurion. “We didn’t follow for…”

Livius held his hand up. “You have done as I would have done.  The Prefect just wished to know where she had gone so that he could send the Gallic ala after her.  You have done well.”

He began to turn his mount around when Marius said, ”There is more sir. There are some deserters with a wagon waiting at a bend in the river.  We thought they were waiting for the Queen but she carried on, it can’t be her.”

“Decius!”

“You many be right Cassius. Drusus, you carry on to Eboracum and tell the Prefect where Morwenna has gone. Drusus, lead us to these deserters.” Drusus nodded and dragged his weary horse to head north.  Marius led the patrol through the scrubby undergrowth which fringed the road.

*

“Sir!  I can a ship coming downstream!”

“Arm yourselves.  It may not be the general.  Let us wait and see.” Nuada’s men lined the bank hidden by the overhanging willows and bushes.

“I can se Tiny.  It is them sir.”

Nuada too could see the huge figure of Tiny standing like an extra mast at the front of the ship. “Over here!  General! Over here!”

Decius was elated and slapped Centurion on the shoulders.  His mind had been working overtime, worrying that Nuada might have stolen his gold or that they might have been attacked and robbed themselves.  Now their dream was almost realised.  “We are almost there centurion!”

“I can almost smell the palm trees of Africa!”

“Helmsman, take us to the bank as close as you can.”

“We’ll have to put down an anchor and tie up to those trees if you want to go ashore sir.  The current will take us downstream otherwise.”

Irritated Decius snapped, “Just do it!” He shouted to Nuada, “Get the gold ready, form a chain of your men to the boat and mine will stack it aboard.”